Many current vehicles employ resilient clips to secure various components to the vehicle body. One such application concerns interior panels that mount to the interior of the vehicle such as on the doors. Such panels serve not only to provide occupants with a convenient point to grasp during ingress to and egress from the vehicle, but also provide energy absorption during a crash event.
During assembly of the vehicle, it is conventional procedure of the entire panel assembly to be installed onto the interior of the vehicle in a single operation. In other words, the panel assembly is passed through either the windshield or backlight opening of the vehicle body on the assembly line and then the panel assembly is secured by line operators to the interior of the vehicle.
In order to accomplish this assembly task, the panel assembly is typically equipped with numerous fasteners, located around the periphery of the panel assembly as well as at predetermined locations around the interior area of the panel, that are adapted to penetrate through corresponding holes located in the reinforcing sheet metal members of the vehicle interior. It is the responsibility of the line operators to properly orient the panel assembly adjacent the interior of the vehicle and press the fasteners into the various mounting holes in the reinforcing sheet metal members to secure the panel assembly to the interior of the vehicle.
For aesthetic reasons, the panel fasteners are typically secured in some fashion to the backside of the panel so that they are not visible from the interior of the vehicle after the panel assembly is installed. Consequently, it is often incumbent upon the line operators to blindly “feel” for the location of the mounting holes with their fingers before pressing the fasteners into the holes from the opposite show-surface side of the panel.
Due to slight misalignments, which can occur between the fasteners and their corresponding mounting holes, some of the fasteners may not be properly seated and secured to the sheet metal.
Additionally, U-based (or V-based) fasteners are often used for interior coupling of parts, however they are rarely used on the exterior due to the lack of sealing of the fastener. Accordingly, it is often desired to provide a sealing engagement between the panel fastener and the panel and/or sheet metal. Previous attempts to provide such sealing engagement included pouring sealing material around the panel fastener. However, this disadvantageously increased the stiffness of the panel fastener and therefore decreases the performance (i.e. durability and/or fastening retention capability).
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for an improved fastener having a relatively low installation force and a relatively high removal force that is relatively more tolerant of misalignment problems. Ideally, the fastener should be inexpensive to manufacture, reliable and simple to install. Furthermore, the fastener should be particularly adapted for securing structures to one another in a manner, which minimizes vibration, and the concomitant noise problems that are often associated with such fasteners. Still further, the fastener should permit proper sealing engagement between the fastener and the panel and/or sheet metal.